HENLEY-ON-THE-YARRA

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 118, 14 November 1929, Page 6

HENLEY-ON-THE-YARRA

CAKXIVAL SPIRIT LV MELBOURNE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 31st October. Carnival spirit was in evidence in Melbourne on Saturday when the great Henley festival took place. Henley has become the biggest day, the jolliest and most colourful day, in Melbourne's rowing year. Both banks of the Yarra were thronged with spectators, and many people looked down on the gay scenes from Princes Bridge and Anderson Street Bridge. It was the day that marked change of fashion j-the first occasion on which Melbourne's women and gills wore their bright-hued summer clothes. This year yellow was one of the predominant colours, and the bright frocks, in contrast with the rich green of the Henley lawns, made a pleasing picture. This year men added to Henley's gaiety by wearing garments of brighter tone, and the owners of canoes decorated their craft with more brilliant bunting. It was an exceedingly gay and animated spectacle, i '

Open-air dancing always has been a prominent feature of the 'evening festivities at Henley-on-Yarra. Special music was provided for thousands of young people who danced on the lawns. A suggestion has been made that open-air dancing should not bo confined to the Henley festival, but should be also arranged during the summer months for reserves in the metropolitan' suburbs. At Coburg—one of the industrial districts—a proposal has been made that the local city band should conduct open-air dances at least once a week in the hot weather. Advocates of the scheme say that the danciug would gain rapidly in public favour, and would be an excellent means of receatiou on sultry evenings. They predict that if Coburg leads the way in this torm of popular amusement, some of the other municipalities— especially those that fringe Port Phillip Bay—will be induced to adopt the idea also. St liUda, forinstance, has many fine lawns that would bo ideal for summer dancing But, on the other hand, St. Kilda is especially well equipped with modern dance palaces, and the local City Council has too many other projects on hand —bathing schemes especially—to give much consideration at present to tKe proposal.